Beaten with a Stick

(perhaps, just in case you're all new here, I should mention that my sense of humor is, shall we say, sarcastic).

Okay, with that disclaimer aside, let me share the verse of scripture that has provided much amusement to me today. But first the story that goes with it.

When we were teenagers, my middle brother (who also has a wicked sense of humor) used to go around informing us that "stupid people should be beaten with a stick." If we questioned him, he would tell us, "It says so in the Bible."

I was thinking about that verse the other day, in the midst of a rather trying encounter with another person, and it made me smile. So last night I emailed him, hoping that he still knew the reference for what had, at one point, been his favorite verse. He came through this morning, sending me an email with the reference, and the appropriate version to find his favorite translation of the verse.

It's making me laugh as I again deal with some rather trying people today. (I think I'm developing an affinity for the practical wisdom of Proverbs. It's been speaking to me on far deeper levels than this amusement lately as well.)

Proverbs 10:13 (Contemporary English Version)
If you have good sense,
it will show when you speak.
But if you are stupid,
you will be beaten
with a stick.

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Another challenging thought from Henri Nouwen

Healing Our Hearts Through Forgiveness

How can we forgive those who do not want to be forgiven? Our deepest desire is that the forgiveness we offer will be received. This mutuality between giving and receiving is what creates peace and harmony. But if our condition for giving forgiveness is that it will be received, we seldom will forgive! Forgiving the other is first and foremost an inner movement. It is an act that removes anger, bitterness, and the desire for revenge from our hearts and helps us to reclaim our human dignity. We cannot force those we want to forgive into accepting our forgiveness. They might not be able or willing do so. They may not even know or feel that they have wounded us.

The only people we can really change are ourselves. Forgiving others is first and foremost healing our own hearts.